Best advice right here. Also, keep in mind agencies can be a bit boom or bust, so save a good emergency fund. You never know when the agency will fuck up its financials or lose 3 key clients and need to lay everyone off.

So leverage the fact you're living in a cheap area and work for yourself then. £25k for a genuinely experienced, well rounded seo who can produce results is peanuts compared to what you could make ranking your own affiliate sites.

I always assumed most people made about $60k straight out of college. I was making about $40k with my first real job at 19 in a small rural town. Perhaps wherever they're paying you in £ doesn't have a very good job market.

Grats! Got my first job 3 months ago as a digital manager. Negotiated 70k but they offered 60k. Shocked I was able to get it, but my online business success impressed them enough(which i make only about 40k in)

Aahh.. working in a first world country as an SEO. Now that's the life! Unlike being on a managerial position in Eastern Europe for a western company and getting 10k (and that's not even close to €). Happy for you! Good luck and always save some money for the future. Also, don't get too comfortable. Try to get out of the comfy zone as much as possible and you will go even higher!

This. People forget purchasing power parity. Hence Clayburn's comment may sound odd to some and /u/joeyoungblood thinks I was very lucky. Technically spent 6 months after graduation in unpaid positions until I had my first paying job salary.